05 April 2007

To Wheaton We Go

Yesterday Stacey and I decided to go to Wheaton for our next (and last!) degree. I'll be doing a PhD in New Testament, working with Doug Moo. As I have told some of you, God's grace has really gotten out of hand with this one. Thank you to those of you who prayed us through this difficult decision.

8 comments:

ErinOrtlund said...

This is such fabulous news!

Gavin Ortlund said...

Yes. God be praised!

Dad

Dane Ortlund said...

Thanks Dad and Erin. You both, along w/ the rest of the family, provide such meaningful support.

Laurie said...

Congratulations on your decision. My husband is also in the midst of a decision and applied to many of the same schools as you. (We found your blog from the Dunelm Road blog). We are still waiting to hear from St. Andrews and Cambridge. I was wondering if you had heard from these schools before you made your decision. I know that there is some uncertainty about who will still be at St. Andrews in the fall. If you have any other info and don't mind sharing, that would be great. Thank you so much and once again, congratulations!

Dane Ortlund said...

Thanks for the note Laurie. For me it ultimately came down to Cambridge, Durham and Wheaton. With Bockmuehl leaving St. Andrews I was no longer interested there, and with the threefold NT exodus at Aberdeen (Gathercole/Williams/Watson) I dropped that option too. I didn't get in to McMaster (Ontario). I found that I could get a sense of the degree of favor of my application at the British schools by asking my supervisor directly. There are a lot of hoops/committees for the application to go through, but if your supervisor has recommended it, you can pretty much count on it, from what I understand. And that's a pretty early domino in the process. The open question when I decided for Whe was whether we would get any funding overseas; because the (significant) funding options are quite competitive we did not know what to expect. At the end of the day, if we had felt that the British programs were superior in structure and content to Wh we would have gone and hoped for $. But we felt Wh lined up best with our life goals and vision; the funding was just the cherry on top! God bless and guide your important decision. Your husband can email me further if he wants. I assume your husband is going to do NT? If so he can still work with B Longenecker there, about whom I've heard wonderful things (i.e. how he is as a mentor).

Dane Ortlund said...

that is, at St. Andrews (which you mentioned a few times)

Laurie said...

Thanks Dane. As of now, we are headed to Durham (having ruled out Aberdeen for the same reasons as you). He just isn't sure if he would rather do St. Andrews (w/Longenecker IF he is still going to be there) if that option were to come through. We heard that they won't be making decisions until after they hire a new NT chair. We haven't heard yet from Cambridge and don't know whether that is status quo for them or whether that is a positive sign. (His applications have been in for several months.

Dane Ortlund said...

If he's slated to work with Barclay, that's tough to beat--he's been extremely kind in my own limited interaction with him, and that's corroborated by what I hear from others. If the Cambr option is Gathercole that would be wonderful too. B/n those 2 and Longenecker you have 3 great options! Though Cambr would have by far the best library of the 3. May the Lord bless your journey.